Susan in TN Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Tell me how to grow garlic - pretty please? Can I grow it in my big planter on the back deck? Do I need to buy special garlic starter bulbs, or can I start with garlic from the grocery store? When should I plant it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KS_ Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 I don't know if you can grow it in planters, but you can grow it from what you buy in the grocery store. I ended up doing that because I couldn't order in specific garlic varieties to my state (they have a ban on it for some reason). So I started with grocery store cloves and then started saving cloves from what I grew. In Idaho, I have to plant in the fall for the next season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer3141 Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Garlic is easy and fun!! I've got 5 beds filled with it right now. It's a fall plant though. You plant in the fall and harvest the scapes and the the garlic in the spring. My mouth is watering at the thought of all that elephant garlic out there waiting to be roasted. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrganicAnn Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 You can grow the garlic from the grocery store and you can put it in planters on your deck, but you won't get the best results. Plant the largest cloves of the head. Store garlic is soft neck garlic. For the best results, buy garlic heads from a seed catalog. These are hard neck garlic (ie more gourmet and less likely to rot). Plant it in the fall before it gets too cold. The garlic may even sprout a little in the fall if you have mild weather. That's okay. It won't hurt it. When the garlic has some leaves turn yellow/brown or flops over, usually around mid July. Then dig up the garlic (if you pull it it might rip). Let it sit out for a few days on top of the soil (unless you are having lots of rain) or in a cool basement or garage. You can dig some early and use - it is called 'green garlic'. It won't have the papery outside. Fresh garlic is much stronger that store garlic (just a warning). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readinmom Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Checked my container gardening books (book a week reading) and both say it can be grown in a container that has at least six inches of soil depth. There are two ways for growing the garlic: green garlic, which is the top shoots of the garlic plant and add a milder garlic flavor to cooking, and the bulb, which can later be harvested for roasting, etc. It can be started by buying a bulb from the market, separating it, and planting the cloves. I'll be trying this in a few days. Apparently spring is here, and winter has forgotten us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaffodilDreams Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 What they said. We plant ours in raised beds and have had wonderful luck the past few years. I'm not sure what to expect this year, though, because our winter has been so weird. Home grown garlic is easy and so much better than buying garlic from the store. The scapes are delicious, too! Super concentrated garlic oil = pure yumminess in the pan! We're in TN, too, by the way. If you REALLY want to plant some right now, you could try placing the garlic in the fridge for a few days and doing a forced hibernation. Then plant it and hope for the best. If it gets too hot too soon, though, you probably won't have great results this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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